Star Bright
by TheSeer
Summary: Between battles, if Riku is lucky, there is a moment of peace. Everyone has a wish they'll never tell.


Riku was walking along the beach. Momo, watching from the dunes above, saw him silhouetted against two sunsets, one in the sky and one in the sea. His hair ruffled in the sea breeze. He smiled suddenly, as though he'd heard a joke. Riku was talking to himself again.

Well, not really - or at least, he _said_ he was talking to Kogenta when he did this. Momo had seen the arrogant tiger-boy appear from nowhere when Riku called, and fight with powers humans didn't have. So, she supposed there was no reason Kogenta couldn't talk to Riku when he wasn't there, as though he lived in another world that Riku could see and Momo couldn't.

(Momo wished Riku would look at her again. Ever since he'd started this stuff with Kogenta, it was like she was the one who was invisible. Riku was still the boy across the street, but he didn't live in the world where they'd grown up anymore. He lived without any adults, he went to strange places. He had new friends, ranging from the odd to the inhuman. People treated him like a leader, like a _fighter_ - Riku, who'd never so much as pushed another kid on the playground in his life. He hadn't visited Momo's house once this whole time.

(Riku was her boy. That was how she'd thought of him, ever since kindergarten. She'd never even wondered if she might have feelings for anyone else; Riku was the only boy who mattered. And now Nazuna and Masaomi and, and _Kogenta_ had stolen him, and Momo was invisible. Momo wished this weird other world would just go away, so her boy would look at her again.)

"Hello, Momo."

Momo jumped. It was that gluttonous teenager, Riku's new friend - Teru, his name was. Had he seen her staring at Riku? "I was just watching the sunset," she babbled, "not Riku, Riku and I are just childhood friends."

Teru shrugged. "I wanted to thank you for coming down here. You guys really helped me."

"Why does Riku always come to bail you out?" she asked, grouchy. A beach trip could have been so romantic, but they'd spent the whole time sweating in a beachside restaurant, working off Teru's debt. And then Riku had gone to fight demons. "It's not like you've been friends that long."

"I guess that's just the way he is," Teru said, in that respectful tone he always used for Riku. "I don't have many friends, and Riku is the Ten-ryuu Head, after all. I'm sorry I had to call on him for something like money, though."

"I still say we should get a share." Momo glared at him.

Teru backed away. "Heheh. Um, I need to go, um, mop up the kitchen." He retreated back up the beach.

(Teru wished he wasn't so poor. He hadn't joined the Ten-ryuu expecting to get rich, but when he'd started, he'd expected to at least be able to count on hospitality from the occasional shrine. Now the Ten-ryuu was crippled. There was Riku's shrine, and Nazuna's, and if there was a third one left in Japan, Teru hadn't found it. Even when Teru was working, he bought as little food as he could, saving up for when he left the job and resumed his journey. Every chance at free food was a treasure, and it was never enough. He would be short his whole life, from missing so many meals during a growth spurt.)

Riku was still walking slowly along the beach. He closed his eyes for a few steps, to listen to the waves. "It's peaceful, huh?"

"Yeah," Kogenta said. The shikigami was floating along beside him, in the ghostly form he had when he wasn't summoned, with his hands behind his head. "Now that the demon's gone."

Riku nodded. He didn't wish he wasn't a toujinshi, not anymore. There were people who needed his protection, friends and innocent strangers, and he wouldn't give up Kogenta. But sometimes he liked a break. It got a little tiring, sometimes, the way everyone seemed to want things from him, now.

(Nazuna wished Riku would lead the Ten-ryuu to victory over the Chi-ryuu, and Souma wished he would somehow make peace. Ryuuji wished he could fight alongside Riku, and Rina wished she could see Kogenta more often. Masaomi never let himself wish while Riku was watching, but sometimes Riku felt the man's eyes on his back, not knowing what he sensed. Masaomi wished for his sister back, with the fire of twelve hundred years' rage he wished it.)

"Hey, Riku," Kogenta said. "Why don't you ever celebrate when we win a fight?"

"Is it something to celebrate?" Riku picked up a seashell, half of an empty clam, and fingered the grooves. "I don't really like it when you have to fight."

"Huh? Why not?" Kogenta was a shikigami. Fighting was everything he was.

"Because you get hurt." Riku's friendship with Kogenta was odd. Sometimes he thought about what it would be like if Kogenta was human, but these wonderings were too confused to be called a wish.

Kogenta smiled. "Thanks, but it doesn't hurt that much. I'm tougher than a human." Riku shook his head, like that wasn't the point.

(Kogenta wished he understood humans better. Until he'd contracted with Riku, he'd assumed all humans were like the toujinshi he'd known - brave and dedicated, with almost as much fighting spirit as a shikigami. Riku wasn't a coward, and he would definitely protect people no matter what, but Kogenta was pretty sure he still hated to hurt his enemies. And sometimes it seemed like Riku fought to protect _Kogenta_, which had to be the most backwards thing in the history of the toujinshi.)

Riku threw the clamshell, and it skipped off the top of a wave before splashing into the water. "Don't worry," Kogenta said. "It won't last forever."

"Huh?"

"The war. We'll win sooner or later," Kogenta said, in the perfect certainty of his arrogance. "You contracted with me to save your grandfather, and now you want to protect everyone else. But when they're all safe, we can end the contract, and you could. . ."

"No!" Riku almost shouted it. Kogenta blinked, confused again. Riku looked away over the dunes. Momo dived out of sight, thinking herself spotted, but Riku hadn't seen her. He was staring at the first star, low in the east, like someone a thousand miles away was holding a candle, waiting.

"Riku?" Kogenta tapped him on the shoulder, though of course he didn't really feel the ghost-touch.

"I. . ." He didn't know how to explain. What was the point of winning if it meant he lost Kogenta? For all that he'd lost in the last few months. . .

(Riku wished Momo would look at him again. Before all this started, he'd thought Momo was his best friend. But whenever he saw her now, she was pointedly not paying attention to him. She was always reminding everyone that they were "just childhood friends," like she only hung out with him because he'd always been around. And she never, ever talked about Kogenta or asked about what it was like being a toujinshi. She acted like this huge new part of his life had nothing to do with her at all.

(Nazuna and Teru were his friends, and Souma and Masaomi were like he imagined brothers would be. His bond with Kogenta was something he'd never knew could exist. But once in a while, when it got dark, Riku wished his best friend would look at him again.)

"It's worth it," Riku said, smiling. The words were mostly true, the smile mostly false, but he didn't want Kogenta to worry or feel guilty. Kogenta seemed to buy it - he smiled back, and looked out at the water. Riku looked the other way, at the star - like a candle, impossibly far away.


End file.
